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The 2005 film ‘Crash’ directed by Paul Haggis is a shrewd and accurate reflection of life in the United States as we know it today.
The movie is woven in and around the lives of a diverse group of people in Los Angeles (in a broader sense representing the disparate groups of people in the United States as a whole) connected together by a car crash.
The main theme of the movie, urban alienation of the American people, is well expressed by detective Graham Waters (played by Don Cheadle) expostulating after his car has been rear-ended that in Los Angeles “nobody touches you,” and as a result of a yearning for contact with others, people “crash so [they] can feel something.” Haggis’ portrayal that someone can purposely court possible injury just to experience a sense of touch with others may seem extreme to some, but as the movie unfolds it becomes apparent that the director’s undoubted penchant for unsubtle melodrama is heavily steeped in intellectualism.
The secondary theme of the movie, a direct consequence of the first, is racism. Racism is exposed as the culprit that causes the alienation of people in the United States. The citizens of the country, whether they are the haves or the have-nots, whether they are powerful or the powerless, may pull up side by side in traffic, but in reality, they are still as far apart as ever. Despite the Civil Rights Movement led by black stalwarts like Martin Luther King who fought to eradicate it, and the subsequent rectifying legislations culminating with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that eradicated it at least on paper, racism unfortunately still continues to haunt the country.
The lives of the characters in the movie are in some way individually affected, altered, harmed, or victimized by racism. The characters themselves are in some way guilty of racism; although some of them eventually rise above their primary anxieties and intolerances, none emerges with a totally clean chit.
The primary and secondary themes are well represented by Haggis as he weaves the lives of his characters from widely disparate walks of life that are not closely connected yet interlocked, to present a realistic multi-sided perspective of the multi-ethnic melting pot that is life in LA (representing life in the United States as a whole). The characters do not so much tell a tale as put forward their opinions as they articulate exactly what they think and feel without the filter of political correctness as their lives crash against each other. There are several scenes steeped in racism that are wearily reminiscent of others in the nation today.
Black detective Graham Waters is having an affair with his Hispanic partner Ria (Jennifer Esposito) without knowing much about her exact background. District Attorney Rick Cabot (Brendan Fraser) is on the campaign trail, playing the race card to garner black votes. Flanagan (William Fichtner) explains Rick’s strategy to Graham Waters: “The D.A’s squad loses its lead investigator next month.
Rick is quite adamant that his replacement by a person of color. It’s a high-profile position, and he wants to send the right message to the community.” Black TV director Cameron Thayer (Terrence Howard) plays down his ethnicity in order to survive in a predominantly white working environment (his white producer even complains to him that a certain black character “doesn’t sound black enough” without realizing that his director himself is tarred with the same brush).
Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock) wants the house door locks changed because she fears that Mexican-American locksmith (Michael Pena) “the guy in there with a shaved head [and] prison tattoos” is a crook who would sell the keys to his gang pals. In another scene, Jean Cabot tells her husband Rick: “If a white person sees two black men walking towards her and she turns and walks in the other direction, she’s a racist, right?” A white racist cop Officer John Ryan (Matt Dillon) who cannot get medical help for his critically sick father explodes at a black female worker (Shanique Johnson played by Loretta Devine), unfairly accusing her of taking advantage of preferential white treatment.
Perhaps the best and most articulate are black carjackers Anthony (Chris Ludacris Bridges) and Peter Waters (Larenz Tate) who constantly talk about the signs of social unacceptability they face, claiming: “I mean, look at us! Are we dressed like gang-bangers? Do we look threatening? We’re the only black people surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people and a trigger-happy LAPD.” In an example that portrays how people arrive at conclusions based on racism, Officer John Ryan stops black TV director Cameron Thayer and his light-skinned wife Christine Thayer (Thandie Newton) on suspicion of indulging in a sex act while driving, even going to the extent of subjecting the woman to a humiliating body search while her husband and Ryan’s partner Officer Rom Hansen (Ryan Phillippe) are forced to watch helplessly.
Haggis goes beyond the more frequently examined white-black issue to touch on Iranian, Hispanic, and Korean issues as well. Iranian descent Shereen (Marina Sirtis) bitterly complains: “They think we’re Arab. When did Persian become Arab?” Hispanic Ria and Korean Kim Lee (Alexis Rhee) engage in a humorous altercation witnessed a motorcycle cop (Sean Cory), with the latter blaming the former: “Stop in the middle of the street! Mexicans! No know how to drive! She blake too fast!” to which Ria sarcastically retorts: “’Blake’ too fast? I ‘blake’ too fast? I’m sorry you no see my ‘blake’ lights?” In another humorous scene, Shanique Johnson exclaims in exasperation to the clinic’s patients: “Oh, my God! What the hell is wrong with you people? Don’t talk to me unless you speak American!”
In conclusion, ‘Crash’ is intensely fascinating, direct, charged with plausible realism, and literally throbbing with real life as it is in the United States. It does exceedingly well to glaringly expose the alienation of the people and the racial hurdles that still exist in the country. Yes, it certainly does present the United States as we know it today. While saying that, it makes me convinced that if a sufficient number of my fellow citizens see the movie, it will go a long way towards making them understand themselves as well as others in a better fashion, thereby making our country a better place for us all to live in amicably and with harmony.
Reference used
Haggis, P. Crash. IMDB movies. 2005.
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